HSP - Options and Capabilities

[TWFarrington]

I am a new HomeSeer user, and I would really like to get HSP/modem. Before I do, I need some guidance from you.

I would like to have a phone system that will take messages that I can retreive from anywhere in the house, or remotely.

I would like to have a visible indication in my kitchen that new messages are waiting.

I would like to have a phone directory/dialer that I can access from any phone in the house (I could say "Sue's Home Phone" and it would either ask me if I want to dial, or it would just dial it).

I would like it to be reliable.

I would like it to be flexible.

I would like it to email and or call me with the voice mail message during specific times of the day.

I would like to have the ability to have the caller ID broadcast via a speaker in the home.

I would like to be able to receive faxes on the same line, preferably un-attended ("to send a fax, press 2" kind of thing).

I would like for my phones not to ring when the caller ID is "Blocked" or "Out of area", and to have those calls immediately go to voice mail where a special message would be heard.

I would like for the caller to be able to press 1 to leave a message immediately.

So, now you know what I want :-) ... pretty much everything. Can I get what I want with HSP and a PCI modem, or do I need the HSP/Way2Call, or am I just asking too much?

Thank you in advance!

Tom

[Rick Tinker]

Tom,

HomeSeer Phone does not do anything related to faxing.

HSP is customizeable and can meet all of your other needs - you would need to slightly modify what we call the IVR scripts to have people press "1" to leave a message immediately, but it can be done.

As for PCI modem or Way2Call, the difference in THIS list of features is whether or not you care to hear the phone's initial two rings before Caller-ID information comes in and can then determine whether it is a private or out-of-area caller and either hang-up on them or send them to voicemail. You see, the Way2Call can "eat" the incoming rings until Caller-ID is available, the PCI modem cannot.

There are no features in your list for being able to ring the phones within the house for things such as morning wake-up calls, so that feature differentiation between the Way2Call and the PCI modem is not needed.

Most of the things on your list are doable right out of the box as they say, some will require some customization. e.g. Your visible message waiting indicator - do you want this to be in the form of a web page, a light that is turned on in the kitchen, or a message waiting indicator on the telephone? Each has varying degrees of complexity, but each can be done. (Not sure if there was a good automated way to get the phone message waiting indicator to work, but there are some long discussions about this here on this message board.)

[TWFarrington]

Thank you Rick, for your answer! I am looking forward to getting going with HSP.